True Crime Detective Magazines Paperback – Download: Adobe Reader, September 25, 2013

It is a truism that "they don't write 'em like that anymore." Eric Godtland proves just how accurate that phrase is. True crime publishing is nearly as old as modern publishing itself. Many folks, especially men, wanted details that newspapers either would not or could not reveal, enter "The Police Gazette." the very first "true crime" publication. Though often sold from under the counter, "The Police Gazette" was successful for a century, proving that there was a steady and lucrative market to be tapped. Before long the newsstands blossomed with hundreds of detective, true crime and, vice magazines.Reproduced in all of their incredible color, with their salaciousness intact, are the covers from the magazines that got grandpa's heart ticking a bit more rapidly. Along the way Eric Gotland expounds upon the history of these publications from their birth in the Nineteenth century to their final demise as the Twentieth Century began to run out of gas. From birth to death, from glory days to hard times, every phase of the amazing history of these publications is captured in these pages. This is one of those books you turn to time and again, reveling in illustrations and devouring the artistry on display. Worth every penny and more.

Wasn't what I wanted

The quality and content were great!

Fantastic book

Love It

A wonderful wrap-up of this very down market publishing phenomenon whose main title, True Detective, was selling two million copies monthly in the late thirties. Not bad sales considering that it was competing against several dozen imitators on the newsstands. After the Second World War sales of the genre slowly declined decade after decade until the mid-nineties when the remaining eleven titles folded.The 336 pages basically present the decades (from the twenties to the nineties) with hundreds of color covers and a nice touch I thought, quite a few inside spreads. Another title that has plenty of inside spreads and covers is 'Cyanide and Sin: Visualizing Crime in 50s America'. The covers relied on paintings right up the sixties, so much better to exaggerate the sexuality of the distressed dame caught up in some criminal deviance. Contrived studio photos took over from art and all the while over-the-top cover lines promised far more than was inside: True Detective, February 1976 main cover was 14 VICTIMS FOR THE SEX-MAD 'GORILLA MAN!' or True Police Cases, June 1968: SIN, SEX and SADISM in a MALE-FEMALE JAIL!As well as all the covers there are some interesting chapters about the writers, cover artists and a spread about the leading publishers and their titles. The book's author Eric Godtland contributes a feature on the significance of females smoking on so many covers and Marc Gerald tells of his experiences as an editor for True Detective in 1989.True Crime is a beautifully produced book in the Taschen series covering popular print culture. It belongs right next to their 'Men's Adventure Magazines' and the six volume 'History of Men's Magazines' by Dian Hanson.

This is an incredibly colourful book, partly because the covers depicted were meant to catch a persons eye an make him or her buy the magazine concerned. Dian Hanson is a famous and intelligent editor and this is a marvellous book. IT contains an incredible 450 magazine covers. A lot of them depicting women "showing a bit ". There is also a history of the magazines, writers and artists. I would recommend this book to everyone, as the colours are so pleasing and cheering to the eye. Of course the Amazon price makes it a real bargain.

Nice thick book. Lots of colour pictures for research.

Excellent

excellent reference material as well as an overview of this genre

Book is in great condition. Very happy with this purchase